Donald Trump is on an Orwellian mission to redefine human rights

It has long been abundantly clear Trump has no respect for human rights. Now Pompeo wants to build a new framework to justify the rollback of protections

The president of the United States makes racist comments against members of Congress. He puts kids in cages. Attempts to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Praises dictators.

It has long been abundantly clear that Donald Trump has no respect for human rights. Now, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, wants to build a new intellectual framework to justify the administration’s rollback of human rights protections.

That is the only way to understand Pompeo’s new Commission on Unalienable Rights. In launching the group Pompeo explicitly stated that the purpose of the commission is to start from scratch in defining human rights. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Pompeo described part of the commission’s mandate: It will “address basic questions: What are our fundamental freedoms? Why do we have them? Who or what grants these rights?”

But it seems clear the intention is to both narrow the definition and application of rights. Pompeo said that the commission’s goal is to exclude “ad hoc” rights. While he does not elaborate on what “ad hoc” rights are, he attacks “politicians and bureaucrats” who “create new rights”, and many of the members of the commission appear to have been selected in no small part because they also want to roll back human rights.

As journalist Ali Rogin reported, one commissioner praised Saudi Arabia and defended it over the murder of the Washington Postjournalist Jamal Khashoggi, while another commissioner praised the United Arab Emirates and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s autocratic power grab. The commission chair, Mary Ann Glendon, opposes reproductive rights and marriage equality.

While the Trump administration seeks to redefine human rights, it is clearly ignoring the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which itself built on the fundamental freedoms enshrined in America’s own bill of rights. Developed by a commission composed of members from around the world and chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, the declaration was forged in the wake of the second world war and adopted without dissent by the UN general assembly. A truly historic breakthrough – with countries of all political leanings and cultures backing a common definition of rights – the declaration has been a global north star ever since.

Trump makes US a hypocrite on human rights

While the President and Vice President refuse to take any ownership for the inhumane conditions at facilities that they are responsible for, other countries are probably recalibrating their views of the US. America’s reputation as a leader for human rights around the world has been tarnished by the Trump administration’s legacy here at home. The inhumane treatment is not only harmful to the migrants we are charged with protecting within our borders — it will also hamstring our ability to promote human rights abroad.

That puts innumerable men, women and children in harm’s way.

Domestic record

US officials have shared that detention facilities are overwhelmed by an influx of migrants across our southern border. In a letter she wrote to Congress in March, former Department of Home Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen asked for assistance and cited overflowing facilities with the potential for a “system-wide meltdown.”

The DHS also has written a public report noting dangerous overcrowding and the prolonged detention of children.

A more recent House Oversight Committee report detailed the ongoing nightmare of Trump’s policy of separating children from their families.

These inhumane conditions aren’t just grabbing domestic headlines — the world is watching. The United Nations said last year that the Trump administration’s child separation policy violates international law, while the organization’s commissioner for human rights was “appalled” by the current conditions of migrant facilities in the US and said that the administration’s treatment of migrants may violate international law.

The ICE raids targeting approximately 2,000 people that began Sunday could put additional strain on already overwhelmed detention facilities. If we can’t guarantee the basic human rights of migrants currently under our care, potentially adding more to the mix is a human rights disaster waiting to happen.

The United States, under successive Presidents from both parties, has been a champion for human rights around the world. Violating these rights here at home, however, makes the goal of promoting them around the world all the more difficult – hypocrisy doesn’t provide the US much leverage.

More rights, more life

In various versions, this message resounded throughout the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) in Bonn, Germany, which on 22–23 June assembled more than 600 participants from 83 countries, more than 7,500 on-line viewers and reached 14 million more through social media with research, stories and ambitions around the importance of rights as a solution to climate change and a fundamental necessity for life on earth.

The GLF first and foremost addressed the rights of 350 million Indigenous peoples caring for over a quarter of the world’s land surface – at least 38 million square kilometers across nearly 90 countries or politically distinct areas. This intersects with 40 percent of protected terrestrial landscapes and includes 80 percent of all the world’s biodiversity.

“We have a mother, and that mother is our territories, our common home of all the Indigenous peoples and everyone who inhabits this earth,” said Maximiliano Ferrer, general secretary of the National Coordination of Indigenous Peoples of Panama.

Without secure land rights and certainty that their lands will not be taken from them, these traditional custodians not only struggle to care for their home environments, but they also have no incentive to do so.

Rights for gender equality, youth, environmental defenders – worldwide, at least 200 people were killed defending their lands in 2017, according to a study by environmental and human rights watchdog Global Witness – and nature itself were also brought into the discussions.

“The water has rights, the tree has rights, the storm has rights,” said Jintiach, who works with the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin to protect his native lands and its peoples.

Despite an increasing number of countries enshrining the rights of nature in legislation, these rights are often not implemented due to overpowering priorities of oil, mining and plantation development, mirroring the reasons for land-related human rights violations as well.

The United States said Friday it will use sanctions against North Korea for its “horrible” record on human rights and religious freedom.

Sam Brownback, U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, told reporters that the situation in North Korea is “deplorable” and cited the example of a woman who was sent to a prison camp for having a Bible.

“North Korea’s horrible on human rights and religious freedom,” he said. “They’ve been a Country of Particular Concern for years.”

The U.S. State Department on Friday released its annual report on international religious freedom, which covers the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2018.

It notes that the U.N. Commission of Inquiry in 2014 concluded there was an “almost complete denial” by the North Korean government of the rights to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, and that in many instances, the government’s violations of human rights constituted crimes against humanity.

In the reporting period, North Korea released a detained American pastor in May. In December, the State Department identified three entities and three North Korean officials associated with serious human rights abuses or censorship.

“We’re going to continue to exert strong pressure,” Brownback said. “Unless they change radically, they’ll continue to be a Country of Particular Concern for us.”

The U.S. in November redesignated North Korea as a CPC for the 18th consecutive year.

“These carry sanctions with them as well, and we’ll use those in North Korea and other places that are particularly egregious cases of religious freedom violations,” the ambassador said. The U.S. in November redesignated North Korea as a CPC for the 18th consecutive year.”These carry sanctions with them as well, and we’ll use those in North Korea and other places that are particularly egregious cases of religious freedom violations,” the ambassador said.

Human atrocity doesn’t start with violence, It starts with prejudice and propaganda

Not very many things scare me, but extremism in every form does.

We hear a lot about the extremism of radicalized Islamic groups, and yes, such groups are worrisome. But labeling an entire religious group with more than a billion followers as dangerous because of the heinous actions of its most radical minority element is also extremism and needs to be called out as such.

We hear about child traffickers trying to smuggle children across the border, and yes, those people are worrisome. But making sweeping generalizations about migrants from south of the border and putting asylum seekers into the same category as human traffickers is also extremism and needs to be called out as such.

When we don’t recognize extremist thinking in our own ranks, we are headed down a perilous path.
I generally think that comparing anyone to Hitler and/or the Nazis is overstating and exaggerative, but I don’t feel that way today. Some of the statements I’ve seen about Muslims and migrants from media pundits, political leaders, and average Joes echo anti-Jewish Nazi rhetoric in frightening ways.

Hermann Goering, who is quoted in this meme and pictured to the right of Hitler, was one of the highest-ranking Nazis who was captured and put on trial by the Allies after World War II ended. He was found guilty on charges of “war crimes,” “crimes against peace,” and “crimes against humanity” by the Nuremberg tribunal and sentenced to death.

The quote comes from a published account of a private conversation with a renowned psychologist, in which Goering explained how “people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.”

We need to remember that Hitler and the Nazis didn’t start the Holocaust by gassing millions of Jews.
The Holocaust started with words. Hitler and the Nazis took advantage of existing anti-Semitic sentiment by fomenting fear and prejudice and spreading false and/or misleading information (propaganda) about the Jewish people.

Death Penalty, Other Abuses “More Severe” in Iran during First Four Months of 2019Death Penalty, Other Abuses “More Severe” in Iran during First Four Months of 2019

Iran Human Rights Monitor released a report on Monday detailing the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses over the course of April.

The report identifies specific examples of several familiar abuses, including the practice of political imprisonment the use of torture and medical deprivation as means of exerting pressure on such prisoners and the chronic overuse of the death penalty The execution of Mehdi Sohrabifar and Amin Sedaghat stands out in that report as one of the regime’s most internationally condemned actions during the given 30-day period. Last week the cousins made headlines in the global press and were named by Amnesty International in a statement regarding Iran’s persistent defiance of international law through its execution of persons who were less than 18 years old at the time of their alleged crimesSohrabifar and Sedaghat were accused of committing rape and robbery although their trial was subject to irregularities that are commonplace in Iranian jurisprudence. Both boys were reportedly deprived of legal counsel and beaten into providing confessions. But regardless of these facts or facts regarding their culpability for the allegedRead more…

Jewish group alarmed after German police let neo-Nazis march

Germany’s leading Jewish organization expressed alarm Thursday over footage of flag-waving neo-Nazis in self-styled uniforms marching through an eastern German town on May Day unhindered by police.

Footage of the march Wednesday prompted widespread outrage in Germany and calls for authorities in the state of Saxony, where far-right sentiment is particularly strong, to step in.

“The images of the neo-Nazi march by The Third Way party in Plauen are disturbing and frightening,” said Josef Schuster, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews.

Noting that the rally took place on the eve of Yom HaShoah , the day when Jews commemorate the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust, Schuster added that “right-wing extremists are marching in Saxony in a way that brings back memories of the darkest chapter in German history.”

German security agencies say The Third Way, a relatively small party, has close ties to far-right extremists. The march in Plauen took place to the beat of heavy drums made to look like those used by the Hitler Youth. Participants shouted slogans such as “Criminal foreigners out!” and “National socialism now!”

Saxony police said several hundred people took part in the march. Counter-protesters were kept away.

Police said they are investigating nine people for illegally covering their faces during the event and another for insulting an officer, but described the day as a success from a policing perspective because there was no violence.

The Central Council of Jews said authorities should have prevented the march from taking place at all.

“If the Saxony state government is serious about combating right-wing extremism, it must not allow such demonstrations,” Schuster said. “The Jewish community expects decisive action and visible consequences from the responsible authorities and the state government.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union is running neck-and-neck in recent opinion polls with the far-right Alternative for Germany party ahead of Sept. 1 state election in Saxony.

At a separate rally Wednesday, neo-Nazis marched through the western German city of Duisburg with signs calling for the destruction of Israel.

On April 10, Omar Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian human rights activist, was denied entry into the United States at Ben Gurion Airport despite having valid travel documents. The Arab American Institute invited him to Washington to participate in a number of speaking engagements and educational programs.

Barghouti, who is the co-founder of the Palestinian civil society led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS), was scheduled to travel to the U.S. on a speaking tour that included public events at NYU in Washington, D.C., NYU in New York City, and Harvard University; and meetings with leading policy makers, thought-leaders and journalists. After his speaking tour, Barghouti was planning to attend his daughter’s upcoming wedding.

Barghouti’s difficulties traveling in the past were due to the Israeli government restricting his ability to exit and enter Israel by not renewing his travel document. To that end, Amnesty International issued a call on February 7, 2019 demanding Israel “end the arbitrary travel ban on human rights defender Omar Barghouti.” Subsequently, he was issued an Israeli travel document. As he already possessed a U.S. visa valid through January 2021, plans for his speaking tour were confirmed. Nonetheless, on April 10, Barghouti was informed at Ben Gurion Airport by airline staff that the U.S. Consulate in Tel Aviv was directed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to deny him from traveling to the United States. Barghouti was not provided an explanation for his denial of entry beyond an “immigration matter.”

AAI President James Zogby made the following statement:

“Omar Barghouti is a leading Palestinian voice on human rights. Omar’s denial of entry into the U.S. is the latest example of the Trump Administration’s disregard for those rights. Having spent considerable time here as a student and while on speaking tours, Omar visiting America was never an issue before. It is clear this arbitrary political decision is motivated by this administration’s effort to silence Palestinian voices. At a time when some members of Congress are advocating for regressive anti-BDS bills and resolutions, when states have passed legislation targeting the non-violent boycott movement in violation of our protected First Amendment rights, it is disturbing that policy makers and the American people will not have the opportunity to hear from Omar directly about his views. The voices of advocates for Palestinian human rights, whether through political targeting or regressive, discriminatory laws, are silenced when discussions or debates are denied.”

Amnesty International says 2018 saw a dramatic decrease in the number executions across the globe, but named the five countries The world’s top 5 executioners that killed the most last year.

Executions across the world reached their lowest figure in a decade last year with a 31 percent decrease, according to a report by Amnesty International.

Compared with 2017, there were 303 fewer executions last year, with the number of global executions dropping to 690 from 993. Amnesty added that the drop came despite regressive steps by a small number of countries.

Key factors involved in the decrease include Iran’s amendment to its narcotics law, which increased the minimum amount of drugs possessed needed for death penalties to be issued.

The move resulted in a 50 percent decrease in the number of people executed in the country in 2018.

However, the country still accounted for one-third of executions worldwide.

A significant decrease in executions was also observed in Iraq, Pakistan, and Somalia.

At the end of 2018, the total number of countries that have abolished the death penalty for all crimes reached 106, while 142 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

The dramatic global fall in executions proves that even the most unlikely countries are starting to change their ways and realise the death penalty is not the answer,” said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

The advocacy group noted that it only kept records for known executions worldwide. Countries like China, Belarus, and Vietnam classify executions as state secrets or do not report them.

Due to restrictive state practice, and ongoing wars and conflict, the advocacy group was unable to access information on countries such as Laos, North Korea and Syria.

Twenty-five years have passed since the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutu

Twenty-five years have passed since the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutu

Twenty-five years have passed since the genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, one of the largest genocides since the Second World War.

On April 7, Rwandans commemorate the genocide that left hundreds of thousands of people dead, with ceremonies themed “Never Again.” Genocide prevention will also be highlighted. The United Nations holds an annual memoriam. Since Rwanda, mass killings have occurred in Bosnia, Sudan, and Myanmar . I was with my children when they died,” said Lydia Uwamwezi, recalling the 100 days of genocide that began 25 years ago this Sunday in Rwanda.There is a lake between Kigina and Nyarubuye. That is where the mob took us. They were tired of using machetes, so they threw my children into the lake. Uwamwezi, now 46, was spared. In despair, she threw her baby carrier into the lake after her drowned children. The Hutu attackers retrieved it and later raped her repeatedly, telling her she must bear them Hutu children to replace the Tutsi ones they had just murdered.If you have a grudge at heart, you can never live well with your neighbors,” she said.